 Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon's shore,Thro' seas where sail was never spread before,Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast,And waves her woods above the watery waste,With prowess more than human forc'd their wayTo the fair kingdoms of the rising day:What wars they wag'd, what seas, what dangers past,What glorious empire crown'd their toils at last. Luís de Camões, opening lines of The Lusiads (1572), as translated by William Julius Mickle (1776).